DRUG LORDS SLAUGHTER DOLPHINS

The world's growing illegal-drug trade is claiming innocent new victims:
tens of thousands of dolphins.

The playful sea mammals are being slaughtered by Latin American gangs using
the fishing industry as cover for smuggling cocaine into the United States
and other countries.

Federal agents say crime syndicates in Colombia and Mexico have bought tuna
fleets and canneries in South and Central America.

The boats are used to transport cocaine and the fishing companies provide a
means of laundering the profits.

"The drug cartels don't care how they catch the tuna, so they don't fish in
a dolphin-friendly way," Ben White of the Washington-based Animal Welfare
Institute told London's Sunday Telegraph.